Bell Hill Vineyard, Chardonnay, Canterbury, New Zealand ***On Allocation***, 2020

Producer Profile

Bell Hill Vineyard is a boutique winery situated in the Weka Pass area of North Canterbury, New Zealand.

Established in 1997 by Marcel Giesen and Sherwyn Veldhuizen, the vineyard occupies a former limestone quarry, which imparts unique characteristics to its wines. Known for their elegance, complexity, and longevity. The Pinot Noir exhibits layers of ripe red and dark fruits with fine tannins, while the Chardonnay offers flinty complexity and a tight structure that evolves beautifully with age.

Viticulture

The Bell Hill Chardonnay is a blend of the Shelf, Roadblock and Limeworks parcels.

Winemaking

All the fruit was crushed before pressing, followed by 12 months in French oak (predominantly 1- to 3-year-old wood), 7 months in tank and then bottled.

Tasting Note

Ripe, intense florals with sea breeze and mineral tones underlying a sweet-fruited nose. Good phenolic presence, in the riper spectrum, gaining tension with air and time, nice, dry-extract finish. The wine is very focused, and will shed its weight, coming to white florals in aroma and flavour, the fruit tones down giving a lemon meringue citrus drive, very salivating with a ripe salinity drive on the palate showing nervosity, energy and length.

Food Matching

An ideal match would be pan-seared hapuku (groper) with a lemon beurre blanc, accompanied by grilled fennel and a cauliflower purée